Barely a year after the ANC superstar, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II made their debut, Bose surprisingly launched its newest in the in-ear lineup — The QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. Releasing alongside the new QuietComfort Ultra flagship over-ears, Bose yet again delivered the ANC to beat. And aside from bringing the buds under Bose’s new Ultra flagship naming convention, they also add support for high-res, lossless audio — something Bose had promised for the QCEII via a firmware update but, as it turned out, couldn’t help but offer without a hardware update too. But hey, we aren’t complaining.
With the new Ultra buds, Bose also took the opportunity to weave in support for its new spatialized audio mode, bringing the feature set of the flagship buds and over-ears beautifully into line. After being the mainstay in my ears since they came out, here are my thoughts on whether the buds warrant the upgrade, and whether they’re still the market-leading choice for the best ANC buds.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds
Recommended
$249 $299 Save $50
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds offer outstanding noise-cancellation that’s backed up by a fun, full-bodied sound. Spatial audio works well for those who like it, and the new support for high-res lossless codecs makes the buds sound even better. However, the lack of a few basic features now feels a bit of an oversight, especially at the high price tag.
- Full-bodied, authoritative sound
- Incredible noise cancellation
- High-res codec support
- Comfortable
- No Bluetooth multipoint
- No wireless charging
- Call quality is a mixed bag
Heavy specs and a price to match
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds cost $299 at launch, which is $50 more than Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro 2 with a USB-C charging port and puts them very much at the top end of the earbuds market, up against the likes of the $299 Sony WF-1000XM5.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds
- Noise Cancellation
- Yes
- Microphones
- Four
- IP rating
- IPX4
- Supported codecs
- aptX Adaptive, SBC, AAC
- Charging
- USB-C
- Driver size
- 9.2mm
- Color
- Black, White Smoke
- Spatial Audio
- Yes
- Earbuds battery life
- Up to six hours (ANC on)
- Charging case battery life
- Up to 24 hours (ANC on)
- Dimensions (charging case)
- 5.94cm H x 6.63cm W x 2.67cm D
Subtle, but effective improvements for an even more comfortable fit and luxe design
In terms of overall design, the Ultra buds didn’t stray too much from its predecessor’s — the QuietComfort Earbuds II– design. Both have a more old-fashioned Bluetooth-like design as opposed to AirPod’s skinny stem form factor or the Galaxy Bud’s pebble shape. A tad chunkier than its competition, the Ultra earbuds aren’t an eyesore by any means, just more noticeable.
The Bose logo in the black version I have in for testing has a silver finish in place of the glossy black of its predecessors, and the earbud stems are also topped with a metallic silver, which subtly helps the Ultra Earbuds stand out, though I’d stop short of saying they have a more “luxe” look, but rather something that make them just different enough from the non-Ultra line-up.
Just as with the Bose Quiet Comfort II’s, the stem is touch-control capable, all of which can be customized in the Bose Music app. Taps control music and calls, while swipes control volume. You can also set a shortcut on each bud for a long hold, from a choice of swapping noise-cancelling modes and activating your phone’s voice assistant, and all works exactly as it should.
I find that the volume controls do require a bit of pressure, but are really sensitive when it comes to hanging up calls. I’ve ended quite a few conversations a bit too early when I merely wanted to slightly adjust the earbud, which can be inconvenient.
There is one slight change in design that, not so much for looks, but for comfort, does make a difference. At the top of the buds, there’s a thin ring that makes it easier to secure the bud in your ear and secure the stability bands.
These are the oval rubbery rings that go around the section of each bud and sit comfortably at the top of the outermost part of the ear. As their name would suggest, they help to keep the buds in place, as well as improve the seal. As someone with smaller ears, I was also glad to find that there are three band and eartip sizes to choose from for a more custom fit.
Essentially, while Bose didn’t radically rethink its flagship buds look, fit or feel — so much so that the old buds fit into the new case (and vice versa) — the familiar design is actually welcomed.
Adhering to their name and predecessor, comfort is also top-notch. The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II have been some of my favorite earbuds over the past 12 months, and their comfort has a fair bit to do with that. The Bose Ultra Earbuds are — unsurprisingly — no different and have held out in the long term, too.
They’re more comfortable than the Sony WF-1000XM5, which seems to need very careful positioning, and some pretty decent pressure to get their seal just right. In this regard, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are foolproof.
Bose’s take on spatial audio is a win
The big headline feature here is the introduction of Immersive Audio, which was also included on the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. It’s Bose’s take on spatial audio, but will work with both spatial audio mixes and regular stereo tracks to add a greater sense of space to the presentation. The idea is to move the sound from between your ears to somewhere out in front of you instead.
There’s the option for both Still and Motion.
Still will keep the audio secured in front of you, no matter which way you move your head, whereas Motion will mean the sweet spot follows wherever your head moves, and will aim to make you feel less disorientated when listening in this mode on the go.
Switch it on, and immediately you will hear the music move up and away from the space between your ears. It’s really impressive, instantly adding more space between vocals and instruments, so much so that you can almost pick them out on the soundstage in front of you. The processing is also incredibly smooth, tracking and following my head movements accurately, even when I try to catch it out.
Immersive Audio x Atmos makes for a happy audiophile
I do find, as I did with the Ultra over-ears, that there is a slightly processed sound to regular stereo tracks with Immersive Audio on, which doesn’t sound great to a critical ear. This isn’t quite so distracting when listening to Atmos-mixed tracks on Tidal, but it’s not personally a way I enjoy listening to music.
By their very nature, Atmos music tracks just sound a little hollow and lacking in focus to me, but if it’s a sound experience you enjoy, then Bose, without a doubt, makes the very most of it from the headphones I’ve heard.
Call quality isn’t as clear
Elsewhere, Bose claims to have improved the call quality on the Ultra Earbuds, by prioritizing the mics at play according to which is the least under pressure (there are four per bud), and also reducing the amount of noise that cuts through during a call.
I actually found the results a bit of a mixed bag — or at least my callers did. While I could hear them loud and clear with no issues, they commented that some of the background noise could cut in when I was talking (though it was very quiet when I wasn’t speaking), and that my voice dipped in and out in terms of volume. Overall, it’s a bit of a fragile performance unless you are projecting your voice at a consistently loud volume.
Battery life: No boost, but still stable
Battery life is the same as it was in its predecessors, offering around six hours of playback and 24 hours in total, in the case. However, if Immersive Audio is your thing, you’re going to need to make sure you keep your case charged up, as you’ll only get four hours of playback with that, dropping to 16 hours with the case.
There is at least a fast charging option, with two hours of playback from 20 minutes on charge, while for waterproofing, you can expect IPX4 protection, meaning they can accompany you to the gym without worry.
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There are some clear misses here, which you wouldn’t expect from headphones this pricey. There is no Bluetooth multipoint, which buds half their prices offer, and no wireless charging either. As before, you’ll need to spend an extra $49 to get the wireless charging cover, if this is important to you.
Active Noise-Cancellation (ANC) remains Bose’s bread and butter
It’ll probably come as no surprise that the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds remain as superb as their predecessors when it comes to noise cancellation, deadening the noise of the busiest trains, noisiest roads and thumping gym playlists to next to nothing.
As usual, high-pitched noises will be the most difficult to cancel out entirely, so the beeps of a train door may cut through, but when you’re playing back your music at the same time, they don’t register as an interruption at all. However, as many high-pitched noises may alert you to emergency or safety concerns, I think we can let that slide — for the very few times it occurs.
Simply put, it’s the best noise-cancellation you’ll get from in-ears.
As with their predecessors, every time you put them into your ears, you’ll hear Bose’s CustomTune chime play into your ears (followed by a very helpful update on the device you’re connected to and battery percentage). Simply put, it’s the best noise-cancellation you’ll get from in-ears.
This short tone is actually doing more work than you might think, checking the fit of the earbuds at every wear and tweaking its sound and noise-cancellation based on what it discovers, for the best performance every time.
The standard presets for noise-cancellation are Quiet, for the maximum noise-cancellation, and Aware (Bose’s transparency mode), which lets noise from your surroundings in with startling accuracy.
This option is accompanied, as usual, by ActiveSense, which will jump in to protect your listening experience should you walk past building work, for example, or something else suddenly very noisy, and block it out.
You can also add in your own modes, tweaking the level of noise-cancellation you want to have and naming the mode appropriately. However, as is usually the case with Bose’s noise-cancelling buds, there is no option to turn ANC off completely.
Bassy sound and focused vocals
There’s been no upgrade to the hardware in charge of the sound of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. They feature the same 9.3mm driver in each bud leading the charge in their audio performance, meaning that there’s plenty here that sounds very familiar indeed.
That means there’s a solid bass response from the get-go — slightly more generous than is neutral, but not one that steals the show or runs amok across any other part of the frequency range. It creates a bold, full-bodied performance, but one that doesn’t gloss over detail in the process — there are stacks of it.
Listen to Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, and you’ll get plenty of low-end warmth from the bassy synths, but also punch from the fast rhythmic bassline that accompanies it, driving the track forward with energy, enthusiasm and attention to detail.
Vocals are woven through the mid-range rather than sitting on top of the instruments supporting them, which gives a very cohesive and focused performance. However, in busier tracks, a little more forward presence wouldn’t go amiss, and a tweak in the EQ setting of Bose’s Music app might be required if you feel the same.
There’s arguably more weight through the mid-range than you might hear in the Sony WF-1000XM5 too, which chooses a crisper, more insightful handling than an all-out presence. That’s not to say the Bose earbuds are lacking in detail, but Sony’s buds do dig a little bit deeper here.
Still, the Bose play to their strengths and deliver a supremely confident and authoritative performance, injecting all the bounce Beyoncé’s Cuff It requires, while still maintaining the poise to dial it down for Adele’s Someone Like You when needed.
Balanced presentation
There’s a good sense of space and organization to the presentation too, and dynamically, they navigate their way through quiet and loud with explicit handling. To my ears, it’s an almost identical performance to the one I loved in the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, and I’m certainly not mad about that.
However, what makes things a little more interesting here is the new addition of Snapdragon’s Sound Technology Suite, which enables support Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive lossless streaming — something the QuietComfort Earbuds II does not offer.
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If you have an Android device or music player that’s capable of lossless steaming, and decent source material too, it does make all the difference to feed these buds better sound quality. They cling to the extra detail, and you don’t need to be an audiophile to hear the difference it delivers.
Streaming from the aptX HD-capable FiiO M11S instead of my iPhone 13 Pro, there’s undeniably more refinement to a playthrough of Limp Bizkit’s Take a Look Around — from the bass, all the way through to the treble.
When the guitar solo lets loose at the chorus, accompanied by cymbal crashes and Fred Durst’s shrieking vocals, it can all sound a bit too raw via the iPhone’s AAC codec, the busy mix starting to harden up with the (considerable) volume I tend to listen at.
However, streamed using the higher-res codec, this raucous mix makes all the more sense. Instruments have more space to breathe, and there’s more subtlety at play thanks to an increase in fine detail. It creates a much more comfortable and carefully crafted listening across the board — from dynamics through to musicality — and is such a clear improvement that I’m not keen to go back to listening from my iPhone.
Verdict: Bose continues to lead with another ANC bud victory
Considering the strong blueprint left for them by last year’s Earbuds II, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are every bit as excellent as I thought they’d be.
They bring everything that was great about last year’s buds but add in spatial audio, for those who like it, plus high-res audio support that has a superb impact on sound quality. With Sony snapping at its heels here, it’s not a moment too soon either.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds
Recommended
$249 $299 Save $50
They still lack a couple of things that you might expect at this price — namely Bluetooth multipoint and wireless charging — and call quality could use with some improvement.
While there might not be enough improvements here to tempt some to upgrade from the QCEII, any newcomers looking for a confident, detailed sound alongside the best noise-cancelling performance that true wireless headphones can offer, then the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds will not disappoint.
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